The Ice Cream Crawl: The Report
I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the ice cream crawl, but you know what guys, WE DID IT! Eight ice cream places in seven hours, from Seeb to Ruwi, across four malls, one business center, and a ghetto. In total we were 18 crawlers, 3 children, and 2 babies! We lost count of the number of scoops consumed in total, but you know it was A LOT.
Read the rest of the report after the jump.
The Ice Cream Crawl 2011!
The Omani Cuisine knows that there is no better cure to the crazy heat of the summer than some delicious cold ice cream, and to help our lovely readers pick the best ice cream place in Muscat, the Omani Cuisine decided to go on a mission next week to have ice cream at all the major ice cream places in town in one single day - we will try them out, compare their offerings, and decide by the end of the day which place serves the best ice cream!
The Ice Cream Crawl will take place on Sunday the 29th of May and its program will be as follows:
- 3.00pm to 3.45pm – Pinkberry - Muscat City Center
- 3.45pm to 4.15pm – Baskin Robins – Muscat City Center
- 4.30pm to 5.15pm – Tropical – BankMuscat HQ
- 5.30pm to 6.15pm – Dream Cone – Zakher Mall
- 6.30pm to 7.15pm – Il Gelato di Bruno – Oasis by the Sea
- 7.30pm to 8.00pm – Marble Slab Creamery - Qurum City Center
- 8.00pm to 9.00pm – Cold Stone – Qurum City Center
- 9.15pm to 9.45pm – Softy – Ruwi
In hope of making a fair and proper judgement of the ice creams we have on this crawl, the Omani Cuisine has sought the professional assistance of former Forbes Journalist Stephanie Dahl who will be featured heavily as a guest blogger on this mission.
All of our readers are welcome to come cheer for us (and have some ice cream) at any of the places shown in the program above at the timings indicated. It would be fun to meet you guys in person and learn about what you consider to be the best ice cream in town!
You can RSVP to attend the Ice Crawl on Facebook here.
La Brasserie – Mattrah
La Brasserie (Telephone: 2471 3707) is a French restaurant in Mattrah. It is located on the corniche next to the small series of budget hotels that face the fish market.
The seating in La Brasserie is really nice, there are tables outside the restaurant for use when the weather is nice, indoors seatings on the first and second floor of the restaurant, and even more tables on the open verandah on top. The restaurant feels very comfy and elegant at the same time.
The menu of La Brasserie is quite extensive with a wide set of appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, a selection of main courses, and also a kids menu. For the starters we had “aioli de legumes” (RO 1.800) - which had a garlic flavored mayonnaise served with a selection of vegetables – the dip was nice and all the vegetables were fresh and crunchy. We also had garlic shrimps with pineapple sauce and crusty bread (RO 2.800) which was excellent.
For the main course I had a sliced chicken breast with mustard sauce (RO 7.500) which was amazing. I am not usually a big fan of things with mustard sauce, but this was really great as the chicken was very tender and the sauce was delicious. The french fries were also very nice! My friend had a duck confit pasta (RO 6.300) which he enjoyed, too.
There were several items for desserts at La Brasserie including different tarts and creme brulee, we decided to go for the chocolate lava cake – moeleux au choclate (RO 2.500) which was quite good.
The drinks options at La Brasserie included a number of juices, hot drinks, and ice teas. We had a lemon mint (RO 1.800) and an orange juice (RO 1.800).
In total we ordered 2 appetizers, 2 main courses, 1 dessert, 2 juices, and 1 bottle of water, the total of our bill came to RO 25.70.
I thought the service at La Brasserie was excellent, our food came quickly and exactly as we ordered it.
I enjoyed the whole of my experience at La Brasserie and would love to come again and have a meal on the veranda or outside when the weather is nicer. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an excellent place to dine in around old Muscat.
Have you guys been to La Brasserie, what is your favorite dish there?
Just Grilled – Oasis by the Sea
Just Grilled (Telephone 2460 1290 – Map) is a new grilled food restaurant in Oasis by the Sea in Shatti Al Qurum. The restaurant is located on the right side of the mall right before Costa Coffee. It is a local brand and owned by the franchise owner of Cafe Ceramique.
A serious problem with Just Grilled is the seating – there are a few tables outside the restaurant besides the road, but it is so damn hot at this time of the year no sane person would stay there except those who have to get their cigarette fix. Inside the restaurant itself there are three micro tables that seat only two persons each, and they directly face the grilling station making it is hard not to get irritated by the smell and all the cooking. Fortunately there are a few tables on the inside section of the mall (literally just four tables) and they are the most acceptable place to sit in, but still they are not perfect as a lot of people pass from there and it is hard not to see a million people you know coming and going back. We were unlucky to have a couple of families dine in the same area with kids, so there was a lot of running and shouting making the place almost feel like a food court.
Just Grilled has a big menu with a breakfast section, salads, sandwiches, grills, burgers, vegetarian grills, and pastas, yet even with all these things there are no proper appetizers in this whole menu – except for soup of the day which turned out to be sweet corn chicken soup.
We asked the waiter if there is anything we can have as a starter and he suggested we pick something from the vegetarian section like the Spring Rolls with Sweet Chilly Dip or the Roast Pepper & Hallloumi Wrap, we thought we’ll go for the spring rolls, but we were informed later that they weren’t available, so we went for the Roast Pepper & Halloumi Wrap (RO 2.800 – pictured above), which turned out to be nice, but seriously not a good option for a starter because it was as heavy as a main course and came with the same salad and fries that came with my main course.
For the main course we thought we’ll pick something from the primary “Just Grilled” section of the menu, so I had a Grilled Chicken with Warm Tomato Corn Salsa (RO 3.700) which was amazing! The chicken was nicely tender and the salsa was spicy and full of flavour. I really really liked it. The side salad was alright and their fries were nicely done, too. My friend had a plate of Olive Chicken Skewer and Feta Salad (RO 3.700) which he thought was good, too.
For desserts Just Grill has a selection of cakes and chocolate fondue, we got a Blueberry Cheese Cake (RO 1.800) which was creamy, soft, and divine, surely one of the best cheesecakes I had in a while.
There were loads of different options for drinks, and many of them had some really strange combinations with yogurt and coco nut milk, I ended up having a Strawberry and Kiwi Smoothie which I quite liked.
I thought the service at Just Grilled was alright, even though I wasn’t happy about the advice we got to get the halloumi wrap, everything else was perfect, our food came quickly and as ordered and I thought that the staff were quite friendly.
In total we ordered three main courses, two drinks, and 1 dessert. Our bill came to RO 15.098.
Even though I wasn’t happy about the seating arrangement and the lack of starters, but I have to admit that I really liked the grilled chicken breast I had at Just Grilled and I will surely be visiting this place again to have that dish or try out different items on the menu.
Have you been to Just Grilled? What did you have and what did you think of it?
Tokyo Taro – Al Falaj Hotel
Tokyo Taro is a Japanese restaurant located in Al Falaj Hotel (2470 2311) in Ruwi. If you are coming from Seeb you take the very first right directly after the Darsait bridge and continue on that road until you see Al Falaj Hotel on the right side of the road. Tokyo Taro is the oldest Japanese restaurants in town and probably for that reason a lot of people refer to it as “The Japanese Restaurant” (I think that’s the officially registered name of the place.)
Tokyo Taro is quite a big restaurant with one private room that can take up to eight people, two central tables in the middle that can take up to 18 people, and several tables with a window view of the downtown Ruwi. Tokyo Taro also has eight seats for Teppanyaki – this is where you have a set menu and the chef cooks the food in front of you.
Tokyo Taro is usually not crowded on weekdays, but it can easily get fully booked on weekend nights, especially for teppanyaki, if you are coming on a weekend it might be a good idea to reserve a table in advance.
The menu of Tokyo Taro is quite big with set dinner meals, box set meals, sushi, tempura, soups, and other dishes, too. Tokyo Taro is fully licenses, so you should watch out for dishes that have pork if you do not eat it. Alcohol is also served at Tokyo Taro, but I do not think that it is used in cooking anything except one of the teppanyaki desserts. If you cannot eat raw fish Tokyo Taro can cook the sushi for you before it is served (not that I recommend you do that, but at least you have the option).
For the starter we got one plate of 10 pieces of California Rolls (RO 3.4000) which basically was prawn, cucumber, and mayo maki rolls. I thought that it was nice, even though a bit simpler than what you would usually get in for California Rolls in other places.
For the main course we thought we’ll go for a Take Bento Box (RO 6.500) which had a sashimi mix, vegetable and prawn tempura, chicken teriyaki, grilled fish, omelette, salad, pickes, miso soup, and plain rice. The other options for bento boxes are similar. Having a bento box is a really great idea if you want to try out different things. I really loved everything that came with in my box EXCEPt the omelette, I don’t know, I guess it is just not my cup of tea.
Tokyo Taro offers a few juices, lemon soda, and some alcoholic beverages. I just had a lemon soda, which I thought was OK.
I have never tried any of the desserts at Tokyo Taro except something I had for teppanyaki a while back and I can’t remember how it was.
For this visit in total we ordered 1 plate of sushi, two bento boxes, and two drinks. Our bil came to RO 23.200.
I thought that the service at Tokyo Taro was excellent, the staff is always friendly and cheerful, and the food always comes as ordered.
I really like Tokyo Taro and I cannot recommend it enough for those going out for Japanese food!
Aama’s Steakhouse – MQ
Aama’s Steakhouse (Telephone: 9677 8541) is a new steakhouse is MQ located somewhere near Pavo Real and restaurants in that area. Aama is supposed to be one of the words in Arabic for mother – so that name of the place is something like Mom’s Steakhouse.
The seating is Amaa’s is pretty nice and very spacious. The restaurant has some funny American-Omani fusion theme, so there are bikes and guitars and other random things, along with a huge photograph of the Sultan Qaboos in the middle and random framed khanjars. I am undecided on whether or not the theme makes any sense, but it is interesting to look at at least.
Even though Amaa’s has opened for a few months now, its menu is not finalized yet. They don’t have a written drinks or desserts menu, but they have a temporary menu for main courses and starters. For the starter we ordered Quesadilla (RO 2.900) which I thought was quite nice, though not exactly very memorable.
Amaa’s has a very small selection of steaks, but you can customize them by choosing what two sides to have with steak and what sauce to have it cooked in. I ordered a Ribeye steak with cooked vegetables, french fries, and garlic mushroom sauce. (RO 6.900). I thought that their steak was great, even though it didn’t seem to be exactly consistently cooked as I ordered my well done, but somehow some sections of it were not cooked as much as the rest. I still thought that it was great, the portions were a lot, and I really liked the sauce even though I’m not a big fan of mushrooms.
Amaa’s didn’t have a written dessert menu, but they told us that they had an Oreo Fudge Brownie (RO 1.300), which I unfortunately didn’t like because the ice cream was coffee flavoured or something – It was just too bitter and not exactly my cup of tea. Amaa’s again doesn’t have a written drinks menu, they told me what they had, and I ordered a Cranberry Cooler (RO 1.900) which I frankly didn’t like much either!
In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 steaks, a dessert, 2 drinks, and 1 bottle of water, our bill was RO 23.100.
I thought that the service at Amaa’s was good, the waiters seemed very friendly and our orders came quickly. My steak didn’t come exactly like I ordered (wasn’t consistently cooked like I asked), but that wasn’t a major blooper for me.
I am surprised that Amaa’s still doesn’t have a proper menu yet even though it has been open for a while now. I had a pleasant overall experience, even though I didn’t like the dessert or the drink I got, but I am sure they have other drinks and desserts. I recommend this place for those who want to go to a steakhouse in MQ.
Hot Pot & Grills – Bareeq Al Shatti
Hot Pot & Grills (Telephone 2440 4291) is a new Asian grill restaurant located in Bareeq Al Shatti Mall right next to B+F and Wasabi.
The seating in Hot Pot is pretty good with a brick and bamboo theme nicely set. The place is relatively small though and it can seem that you are almost sitting in the middle of the walkway if you sit right next to the entrance.
The concept of Hot Pot is that you order to have a platter of vegetables, chicken, meat, or seafood that gets cooked on your table for you on the circular grill you see in the image above. The platter comes with a variety of vegetables and noodles that gets boiled to be served as soup while the meat or whatever you are having will be grilled and eventually the whole thing is served with steamed rice and two bowls of soya and chili sauce.
While the concept sounds like fun, it can be a little bit weird because the waiter puts everything for you on the grill, flips the food to make sure it is properly cooked, and then serves it for you on your plate – it can be a little bit awkward to have the waiter standing over your shoulder for the whole time. I am not sure if you can ask to cook your own food on the grill, but I am aware that it could be a little bit risky as some people might eat things raw or burn their food completely if they do not know what they are doing, another thing I should point out is that there is only place for one grill on each 4-person table, so if each person ordered a different thing you will have to wait for each of them to get cooked before you can have the thing you want – this means that the only appropriate way to order these platters is to order different things and just share everything with everyone.
We tried the chicken platter and the seafood platter and I really liked them both, but I have to say that I liked the chicken one more just because I am a big chicken fan!
I thought that soup was way too much that what a person can handle – each one of us just had one small bowl which was barely one quarter of what we could have had. We were a little bit irritated because the steamed rice only came after we finished the first platter.
In addition to the special hot pot platter, Hot Pot offers a number of soups, salads, dim sums, and sandwiches. We ordered a beef dim sum which took a really really long time to arrive, but was actually pretty delicious when we ended up having it. My friend tried a Hot Pot Burger and quite liked it.
Hot Pot offers a variety of silly-named juices and smoothes, I tried the Lemonino with Mintino (AKA Lemon and Mint) which was as good as what you get in other places.
For some reason, like Wasabi, Hot Pot does not offer any desserts.
In total we ordered 1 starter, 2 hot pot platters, 1 burger, and 2 fresh juices, our bill was RO 23.217.
I thought the service as Hot Pot was OK, the waiters seem to be very polite and friendly, but the order in which our food came was messed up (the starter came at the end). Hot Pot is not exactly a new place at this point, so it really makes you wonder why they can’t get this right.
I enjoy my experience at Hot Pot and I recommend it to those who want to try some different Asian food.
Omani Cuisine and Best Burger Friends Again
Fortunately the dispute between Best Burger and the Omani Cuisine has come to a close. Best Burger sent me an email today saying that they have no intention of taking legal action, that they have decided to take the matter in a constructive manner and that they would be looking forward to have me come visit them again to experience the changes they make in the future.
I would like to wish Best Burger the best of luck and I will be looking forward to see how they move positively forward.
Best Burger Threatens to Sue the Omani Cuisine
I received a very strange email today from Best Burger – the burger joint in Zakher Mall. Even though my review of Best Burger was generally positive, they were not happy about the fact that I thought that their branding and menu design was ugly, and for some reason they think that my photograph of the seating area is harmful to their reputation because it shows the restaurant empty and therefore I am not allowed to put that picture. They want me now to ‘make a positive resolution’ before they ‘review legal implications’.
It is unfortunate that Best Burger does not appreciate all the publicity that the Omani Cuisine has given to their restaurant on this blog, Twitter, and Facebook, and they now wrongly feel that they are entitled to tell me to remove my post from this blog because according to them it will make their ‘business and reputation bleed’.
This is a classical example of how businesses do not understand the new reality of the internat in that they cannot control what people say on the internet. Legally speaking my post does not in anyway qualify as defamation under the Omani Criminal Law because it cannot reasonably held to constitute an insult. You can learn more about the criminal offense of defamation in Oman by reading this old post I wrote on the subject at myITLawyer.com.
It goes without saying that I have no intention of editing my review to please the owners of Best Burger, I believe that my review is fair and offers constructive feedback for Best Burger on how to improve.
Well, I guess I will continue to have my burgers at B+F like I always have.
NOTE: I KNOW THAT ALL OF YOU WILL BE HATING ON BEST BURGER FOR THEIR RIDICULOUS ATTEMPT TO SUE ME, BUT PLEASE REFRAIN FROM INSULTING THEM AS I WILL HAVE TO DELETE ANY INSULTS IN ORDER TO AVOID LIABILITY UNDER THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW. CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOMED THOUGH.
La Mer – Shatti Al Qurum
La Mer (Telephone 2469 2883) is a new shisha restaurant on Love Lane at Shatti Al Qurum right at the start of the lane if you are coming from the Opera House.
At the time of writing this review, the indoors section of La Mer hasn’t yet opened and only the outdoors section of the restaurant is. The outdoors section of La Mer looks pretty and has many tables and seats scattered under palm trees. It was difficult to take a nice picture of the place because it was pretty crowded during our visit.
La Mer does not specialize in any specific cuisine, it serves a few sandwiches, salads, and some continental dishes. It does not exactly have an appetizer/main course/ dessert sections in the menu, but I we did order a Tabooleh Salad for the starter (RO 2.500) which came a bit late at the same time as our starter, but was alright.
For the main course I ordered a Herbed Chicken Risotto (RO 6.000) and my friend ordered a Grilled Beef Steak (RO 6.800). My risotto was a little bit too thick for my liking, but I guess that’s just me, I quite liked the chicken. My friend wasn’t an expert on steaks, but he enjoyed his, too.
For the drinks we ordered a couple of their mixed fresh juice drinks (RO 2.600 each) which were nice. We did not try any desserts at La Mer.
In total we ordered 1 salad, 2 main courses, 2 juices, our bill came to RO 23.990.
I thought that the service at La Mer was OK, the place was a bit crowded so things did not exactly come fast. I do not smoke so I didn’t try any shisha at La Mer, as a non-smoker La Mer does not really appeal to me much even thought the place is open and you do not get chocked my the smoke at all, but I just did not think that there was enough variety in the menu and even though I liked what I had, I wasn’t exactly blown away. If you are a smoker or you like to hang out in that kinda of scene you might like La Mer more than I did.
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